Rogers bolsters communications studies with $35-million gift to U of T and Ryerson

Ted Rogers and his wife Loretta have donated $25 million to the University of Toronto and $10 million to Ryerson Polytechnic University to help train a new generation of engineers and communicators. The U of T will permanently name its department of electrical and computer engineering the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Rogers family donation will help the department double its enrolment to 2,000 students and provide scholarships. The gift includes $18 million in endowed funds for undergraduate and graduate scholarships. Another $4 million will be allocated for two research chairs in the department, including the Loretta Anne Rogers Chair in Eating Disorders at the University Health Network. The remaining $3 million will be used to build and equip the Rogers AT&T Wireless Communications Laboratories, currently under construction on St. George Street. Rogers Communications Inc president/CEO Ted Rogers who, like his father, graduated from the U of T, has made contributions to the university over the years, starting with just $200 when he was a young man. Rogers said this larger donation will help engineering students to stay in Canada. "This program is trying to say let’s work together everybody - private enterprise and private people, these two great universities, the government - and let’s make it so that our young people stay here," he said in making the announcement late last month. "My dad stayed here. He could have moved to the States and done far better financially. But he cared about this country, as all of you care about this country." The $10-million donation to Ryerson will help the university establish the country’s first graduate school for advanced communications in areas such as interactive television, new media, radio, online journalism and related technologies. Rogers’ gift is the largest donation ever made to Ryerson. "My goal is to respond to the overwhelming interest by students today to study in the fields my father dreamed of," Rogers said, making the gift on what would have been his father’s 100th birthday. Ryerson president Claude Lajeunesse said the new graduate school for advanced communications "will serve as an incubator for tomorrow’s leaders in the communications industry." The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Graduate School for Advanced Communications at Ryerson will provide a venue for research in communications and technology. Ryerson already houses the Rogers Communications Centre, which offers under-graduate programs in radio and television, journalism and computer science. The gift will provide $6 million for graduate fellowships, funding a minimum of 15 per year at $20,000 each. The remaining $4 million will endow two research chairs, which will be used to support the planning of graduate programs in emerging areas of communications. It is expected that the new graduate school will eventually house four to five graduate programs, the first of which, an MA and PhD program in communication and culture, is being launched this fall in conjunction with York University. The donations could actually net both universities well over $75 million because the donations qualify for matching grants under provincial and federal programs. Ryerson says it will seek funding from the Ontario Graduate Scholarships, the Premier’s Research Excellence Awards, the Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund, and the Ontario Innovation Trust, which funds research infrastructure.

Rogers bolsters communications studies with $35-million gift to U of T and Ryerson

News | 07/06/2000 4:00 am EDT

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